


Twice As High

by wynnebat



Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-18
Updated: 2012-02-18
Packaged: 2018-04-16 13:36:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4627239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wynnebat/pseuds/wynnebat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Naruto wakes up in the past and meets the younger versions of the sannin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Twice As High

**Author's Note:**

> Backdated to its original FFN posting date.

Naruto woke up to the sharp smell of bleach and antiseptic instead of the expected smell of sweat and alcohol, and told himself, for the hundredth time and the last time, that getting drunk wasn't worth the next day's torture. He could feel his ribs aching, his toes clenching without his permission, and a layer of fuzz sliding across his teeth. He debated staying in bed for a little while longer, but decided it wasn't worth getting sick over. Whoever had helped him into bed last night obviously decided he needed nothing except a light sheet to cover himself. As it was winter, Naruto decided this was Sakura's new way of showing him she disapproved of his drinking habits.

Naruto stood up and looked around. He noticed he was neither at the inn room he'd rented nor at any home he recognized. The room was too plain: white walls, light wood floors, a low bed, a simple cheap table with a glass of water and some pills next to the bed. He recognized the pills as old pain relief pills that had gone out of circulation at least two decades ago, but didn't take them.

His hand went to check for his weapons pouch (even though he hadn't felt it when he first woke up) and his tongue checked for his fake tooth. Both were missing. Naruto stepped out of the room, taking care to make no noise, and looked down the hallway in both directions.

He was in enemy territory; he wouldn't have had his weapons pouch taken from him back home and no one but Sakura knew about his tooth. He wasn't a prisoner; he hadn't had his chakra sealed and he hadn't been tied up. Was he a hostage? He was a bad choice for a hostage, but it was possible. He was being treated well; were they trying to induce Stockholm's? He wasn't sure of what they wanted with him and who they were, and this kind of uncertainty was dangerous. His clothes were only loose cotton pants and a light shirt. They weren't keeping him naked; was it stupidity or manipulation? He'd feel alone, exposed, uncertain without clothes and much more unlikely to run away, but he'd be more relaxed and comfortable with clothes. Without shoes, running away would be difficult. His feet would be bloodied and they could track him easily with dogs.

Jiraiya would have been proud of his mental capabilities, Naruto thought, and his mood lightened a bit.

He felt the nearing medic nin's chakra before she rounded the corner. Low to medium-low natural chakra supply, razor's edge precision, older female. Once he saw her, tall and on the heavy side, he noted he'd have to raise his arms at an uncomfortable angle to snap her neck.

His right hand twitched toward his right hip, the left almost went to the imaginary sword on his back.

She smiled thinly. Naruto didn't delude himself into thinking she didn't notice his reflexes.

"You're awake. Come with me."

Naruto noticed she didn't try to constrain him to bed. Smart, but odd. She wore no forehead protector.

He followed her for about two minutes. The floor felt cold to his bare feet. The never-ending hallway uncomfortably reminded him of Orochimaru's underground lair, but he pushed those memories aside. The woman stopped in front of a pair of double doors. Naruto nodded to her and waited until she turned the corner and her chakra faded from his senses completely. He was being shown too much trust, and not the awe-stricken trust shown to heroes of the Fourth War.

The room was chakra-blocked. Naruto squashed both the impulse to blow the doors down and the impulse to study the room's seals.

He knocked and waited until he heard a "Come in" to enter.

He looked around the room, sat down in an empty chair, and told himself that it was okay; all good shinobi go insane at some point in their lives.

Twenty-seven years of sanity wasn't half-bad. Orochimaru hadn't lasted that long. Hell, Sasuke hadn't lasted half of that. The reassurances were going nowhere, of course, since he was seeing a surprisingly young-looking Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru sitting calmly in the office of a former Mizukage. Naruto had always thought he'd see dead people when he'd go insane.

Belatedly, he remembered Kiri medic nins didn't wear forehead protectors (something about the metal corrupting their chakra control; Tsunade called it a load of bull and said their practically civilian dress allowed the cowards to flee easier on the battlefield).

"Hello," Naruto said, scratching his head. "I'm Naruto."

The Mizukage's eye twitched, but he didn't automatically throw Naruto out for his social faux pass. Naruto was a bit disappointed.

"I still don't recognize him," the Jiraiya look-alike said, turning to Tsunade in a rare show of seriousness. Naruto's heart panged a little, but he ignored it and instead wondered if there was something symbolic about him being older than his mentors in this crazy illusion.

The Mizukage folded his hands together. Naruto absently noted his rings were the same on his right hand, but there was one extra. Had it gotten lost in the mail? Had Mei-mei kept it? "Good morning, Naruto. A squad of my genin found you on the outskirts of the village. They had thought you were a shinobi of the mist and brought you in." It went unsaid that if they'd known he was a leaf shinobi from the start, he'd have been left to die. Naruto saw understanding in Orochimaru's eyes and confusion in Tsunade and Jiraiya's. They caught on to the undertone, but didn't understand what the Mizukage meant. Naruto felt a strong urge to keep them innocent forever.

"A squad of leaf shinobi came to deliver a trade agreement and I asked them to bring you back to your home."

"Thank you for your consideration."

"Imagine my surprise when not only did they not recognize you, but the identification number on your forehead protector was found to be falsified." Silence reigned.

"I don't suppose you'd tell me how you noticed the number was off," Naruto prompted. The Mizukage was within rights able to deny his questions and dispose of him, but the kids hadn't caught on.

"It was too large." Jiraiya said, wiggling his eyebrows in Tsunade's direction, but then becoming serious. "I know the recent class of genin's ID's only went up to three digits with three zeroes at the beginning. Yours had four digits."

"Ah. It's much easier to go through the fire country with a leaf forehead protector, and I asked my friend to make a plate for me with my parents' birthdays so I wouldn't forget the dates," Naruto said for lack of a better reply. Was this real? Was he still dreaming?

The Mizukage took back control of the conversation. "How did you get here?"

"I don't remember. I think I was drinking with a man I'd met, and I went outside to get some air. Maybe I passed out."

"You were found outside the village and a mile from the nearest pub."

Naruto shrugged. "Strange things happen when men drink."

"Mmmm." The Mizukage studied him as though he'd be able to detect Naruto's lies if he stared hard enough. "Unfortunately, you must justify your reasons to the Hokage, not to me."

Naruto held back a scoff. If he had not explained to the Mizukage, he would not have lived to explain to the Hokage. He also decided not to try justifying himself to Tsunade.

"We will take him to our Hokage, Lord Mizukage," Orochimaru said. His tone wasn't threatening or insane; in fact, it broke at the very end. A teenage Orochimaru going through puberty wasn't very threatening.

"Ah, yes, your sensei." The Hokage's gesture was lost on no one. "Tell him I will send him a reply within the month."

"Yes sir." The three of them bowed and headed out of the room.

Naruto stood up and awkwardly looked from the leaving team to the Mizukage. "You wouldn't happen to have my belongings, would you?"

Jiraiya looked back. "I do. Here." He gave Naruto a bag.

Naruto slipped his shoes on. They were cheap and civilian, but they provided enough insulation to keep him happy. "Much better. See ya!" He waved to the kage and grinned wider when Yagura's lips turned down.

As he walked, Naruto tried to plan a course of action, but it didn't really work. He was either delusional, in a huge genjutsu, batshit crazy, in the past, in another reality, or Orochimaru, Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Yagura had been resurrected by . . . well, there had to be more insane creeps like Orochimaru somewhere out there.

He scrapped the last option but kept the rest in the back of his mind. The Sannin would have refused to go back to their pimply teenage years and Yagura was too unimportant to resurrect.

"If you're planning to run, you should know we'll catch you," Jiraiya warned.

Orochimaru scoffed. "You mean Tsunade and I will catch him and you'll lag behind and do nothing."

"That was one time!"

Naruto nodded. "Okay. Sure."

Tsunade rolled her eyes. "We may not look like much, especially Jiraiya over there, but we were trained by the Hokage and we're chunin, almost jonin." Since she didn't list them as the legendary Sannin, Naruto supposed it hadn't happened yet. Jiraiya also wasn't proclaiming himself as the legendary toad sage.

"I'm Jiraiya." Naruto felt tempted to say 'I know.'

"The amazing beautiful woman over here is Tsunade and the idiot over there is Orochimaru. Don't listen to him, he's a failure."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Naruto and as long as you don't mind that I'll slow you down with my slow pace, it'll be no problem." It looked like they all expected him to run. Forger accomplices that got caught faced jail time, if Naruto remembered correctly. He decided he had enough leverage to convince the Hokage to waive his jail time if he made it to the leaf village. He was still ambivalent about what he was going to do, but he'd go with the flow for now.

Naruto rifled through his bag. He vaguely recognized the clothes as the outfit Sakura had given him after he'd come stumbling out of the shower with only a towel around his waist. His regular outfit had been soaked with blood and alcohol. His tooth wasn't in the bag, which made him more uncomfortable than he'd like to admit.

They walked for a few days, going to bed early on the side of a road and getting up before dawn. After a few days, they established a pattern where one would walk with Naruto and two would walk ahead, scouting the area for danger. On day five, when they were nearing the leaf village, Tsunade and Orochimaru had went ahead, talking about some new medical techniques and not looking around as carefully for danger. They were only two miles from the village and the area was heavily patrolled; Naruto sensed over fifteen shinobi squads nearby.

The team dynamic filled Naruto both with confusion and nostalgia. Orochimaru and Jiraiya bickered like Sasuke and Naruto had, often flinging weapons at each other and calling each other names. Orochimaru acted aloof, but Jiraiya kept prodding at him until Tsunade had to call them out. But there was an undercurrent of tension between them all; sometimes Jiraiya would call Orochimaru a name and he could feel a sharp spike of killing intent. And twice Tsunade had told Jiraiya she'd never like him in any capacity; he was an annoying, weak bug under her shoe. From the way she spoke, she truly meant it.

The stories had painted the Sannin as amazing, united warriors whose strengths played to one another's faults, but Naruto was surprised their team hadn't imploded yet.

Naruto noticed Jiraiya take his tooth out of his pocket and study it once again. Jiraiya had taken it out a few times during the trip, but Naruto hadn't said anything. He wondered if Jiraiya expected him to.

Jiraiya looked over at Naruto and Naruto pretended to cloud watch, ignoring him. After a while he gave in. "So that's where it went. I wonder how I lost it."

Jiraiya didn't look at him. "Yeah. The Mizukage said they took it out because it looked strangely off colored, but couldn't find anything wrong with it." Now Jiraiya stared at him and wouldn't look away. He was even more unsubtle as a teenager than an adult. Naruto hadn't thought it was possible. "They thought it was a suicide pill, but there weren't any poisons in it when they tested it, and it didn't react to any antidotes."

"I'd like it back," Naruto said, quietly. "Maybe I can get it reattached."

Jiraiya kept staring at him. "I know."

"Really? You look a bit young to have lost any adult teeth."

Jiraiya didn't rise to the bait. "Teach me or I'll tell."

Naruto smiled and stared ahead. "How black the underbelly of the leaf's moral facade really is."

Jiraiya's hands clenched and his face flushed. "It's not like that! Please teach me. I just ..." He finally looked up, towards Tsunade and Orochimaru. "Please teach me."

"Why?"

"I just...I'm not like them. Tsunade's practically royalty. Everyone bows down and wants to help her become like the first and second Hokages. And her parents are jonin. Orochimaru's smart. Really smart. He's also an orphan and people feel bad for him. And I have a lot of chakra. That's why I was put on their team. The academy teachers told me I have a lot of potential, but it's no good. I'm not smart and I just. . . I'm so weak. I'm falling behind. And they know it."

"Are those supposed to be compelling reasons for me to teach you?"

"I swear, I'll learn anything you can teach me. I see how you move and I know you're not a civilian. Please help me."

Naruto sighed. "Don't ever try to blackmail anyone again. It's a dirty tactic and you're horrible at it."

Jiraiya looked like he'd never raise his head again. Naruto wondered if he'd been this awkward as a teenager. "Look, I'm not very good at sealing. And I'm not all that smart, either. But I can give you some tips, okay?"

"Thanks," Jiraiya mumbled. Naruto had a hard time equating his powerful, confident mentor to the pimply, insecure teenager next to him.

"Hey!" Tsunade yelled. "You're lagging behind. I know civilians can walk faster than that!"

"Civilians don't know sealing," Jiraiya said, looking at Naruto.

"No, they don't," Orochimaru, who had stopped walking, agreed.

Naruto looked up at the sky. "It's a wonderful day."

"That day, why were you staring at the Mizukage's hand?" Orochimaru continued.

Naruto had seen Yagura, Madara's protégé, once before he'd entered this twilight zone. Or at least his hand. He knew for a fact Mei Terumi (Mei-mei to him) had pulled him apart piece by piece when she'd ascended to power and sent the pieces to Madara's known associates. Unfortunately for Naruto's poor ramen-filled stomach, she had decided to send his left arm to Madara's former village. He'd been visiting Tsunade when the message came.

"He had some cool rings," Naruto answered.

"They were gaudy and ugly," Jiraiya scoffed.

Naruto couldn't argue.

"So, Naruto, do you have a last name?" Tsunade asked.

"No."

"He's probably a bastard," Orochimaru sneered.

Naruto looked up at the sky and prayed the gods would grant the team some maturity, soon.

"Are you?" Jiraiya asked.

"No. My parents were disowned when they left their village and married, so they had no last name. As they came to a farming village, where most people didn't have last names, they didn't give me one either. It's also very rude of you to ask someone if he is a bastard." He half-heartedly glared at both of them for good measure. It was hard to glare with any real anger when Orochimaru's chin had acne and Jiraiya was whole and alive.

"Sorry," Jiraiya mumbled. Orochimaru just glared back at Naruto. Tsunade hit them both over the head, and Naruto knew all was right with the world he'd stumbled into.

They walked together to the main gate, the team talking between themselves and Naruto debating over what he should do. He was in the past, check. Was he meant to go to the past? Had it been predestined that he'd be somehow thrown into the past? Had people, when they looked at a younger him, remembered a man named Naruto twenty years ago with whisker marks? But wouldn't Tsunade and Jiraiya have told him? Had they been unable to?

At the opened gate, Naruto grinned widely, happily at the village. It was beautiful and whole and missing three faces on the mountain, but that was okay because Tsunade and Jiraiya and the old man were alive and young and they weren't going to die for a long, long, time.

Screw waiting around helplessly. Screw paradoxes and repercussions and the world blowing up. Everyone precious to him was going to die in bed of old age, he vowed. And he'd do everything to make sure of it. Sasuke, Sakura, Gaara, Pein, Itachi, his parents, everyone killed by Kyuubi's attack, they were going to the happy and whole this time around. Believe it!

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> Complete; no sequel planned.


End file.
